Waiting for the 8th - Looking for GOP wins in Arizona

As I said on Friday, the Democrats are pulling out all the stops to prevent electoral disaster -- the loss of both the state house and a Senate seat -- in Arizona. They can see that the Republicans have momentum [catchword of the year. Ed.]. But don't take my word for it. Consider this report which appeared on Friday on the Clinton News Network.

Republican momentum in Arizona deepens Democratic worries over Senate

Nowhere in the country has the struggle between election denialists and democracy defenders [The phrase "election denialists and democracy defenders" perfectly encapsulates the Dumbocrat party line. Only they are the champions of democracy while those who think they stole the 2020 election are in denial. Walt] played out in more vivid detail than in Arizona, where Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s ability to hold off late momentum from Trump-backed GOP nominee Blake Masters will be key to Democrats’ hopes of defending their narrow Senate majority. 

Now running for a full six-year term, Kelly – a retired astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords – entered the race in an enviable position as a formidable fundraiser with a personal brand that lent him bipartisan appeal in Arizona, where a third of the electorate are independents. But the economic headwinds facing Democrats, as well as President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings, [!!! Walt] have complicated his political fortunes. 

Republicans need a net gain of just one seat to pick up control of the Senate on Tuesday, and Democrats are already on defense in Nevada, Georgia and New Hampshire. Arizona has emerged as one of the most important battleground states in the nation – not only for Senate and governor this year and likely the next presidential contest – but also because it is the fulcrum of key demographic changes that are testing the reach of both parties. 

As I said, the Dumbocrats are shit-scared. So they brought out the big guns, not just the Prez, obviously annoyed to be awoken from his retirement slumber, but Hellery Clinton. How desperate do you have to be to think that adding their shrill voice to the democracy-is-doomed chorus will save the furniture for Mr Kelly and their gubernatorial candidate, Katie Hobbs. Listen to what Ms Lake and Mr Masters had to say, in conversation with Sean Hannity.

Walt predicts a win for Kari Lake. As for the state house, you pick `em. Lifetime pct .988. I'll see you on the beach.

Arizona to use chemical invented by a Jew to execute criminals

You've probably never heard of (((Fritz Haber))). Born in 1868 in Breslau (now in Poland), he personifies the dilemma faced by an ambitious man who wanted to be both a  good Jew and good citizen of Germany. 

Herr Haber, you see, was the inventor of Zykon B, the gas used to murder millions of his co-religionists, including his relatives, as part of Hitler's "final solution". In 1909, he and colleagues discovered a way to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. This artificial fertilizer went on to be used on a large scale, bringing about a huge increase in crop yields, and practically banishing the fear of famine in large parts of the world. For this, Herr Haber received the Nobel Prize.

Then came World War I. Herr Haber, now working for the Kaiser Bill's research institute in Berlin, was desperate to prove his patriotism. He began experimenting with chlorine gas which, he said, would shorten the war. So it did, but only for 1000s of Allied troops who died in gas attacks at Ypres and subsequent battles.

After WWI, Herr Haber resumed his work on chemicals which would be useful in improving food security. In the 1920s, he and his colleagues were successful in developing pesticide gases, the most effective of which was Zykon B, the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide, which, as it turned out, Zyklon B was effective not just against insect pests, but on higher orders of life, including  more than a million Jews and other "undesirables" at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps. 

Zyklon B was manufactured and marked by Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies, it was seized by the Allies after World War II and divided back into its constituent companies.

So it is that no-one currently makes Zylon B. Which means that the state of Arizona is going to make a batch of home-brewed hydrogen cyanide, with which to end the lives of inmates currently on death row.

The Grauniad reports that the state has purchased a brick of potassium cyanide, sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid, and is undertaking a refurbishment of the gas chamber at a prison in Florence AZ, to make it "operationally ready."

The usual suspects have been quick to criticize the project, not just because of the method's infamous use in the mass killings of the Nazis, but also because (they say) it has produced some of the most botched, disturbing executions in the United States. 

It would have to go some to be worse than the botched electrocution depicted in The Green Mile, but  which is the lesser of the two evils is debatable. A law professor at Fordham University is quoted by the Washington Post as saying that "it's without question that lethal gas, or at least the lethal gas that Arizona is trying to bring back, is the most gruesome of all these methods we’ve had in this country." 

For its part, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry said it was "prepared to perform its legal obligation and commence the execution process as part of the legally imposed sentence, regardless of method selected." They point to the Arizona statute allowing a defendant sentenced to death for a crime committed before November 23, 1992 to choose between lethal injection or lethal gas.

Lethal gas is permitted for executions in six other states: Alabama, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama have authorized nitrogen hypoxia, which uses nitrogen to deprive the body of oxygen. Arizona’s preparation to use lethal gas comes amid a scarcity of execution drugs, which has caused other states to re-examine firing squads and other execution methods.  

There would seem to be an investment opportunity there for an existing company [like Bayer, which was part of IG Farben? Ed.] or "emerging entrepreneur" unconcerned about the morality of the death penalty. Much in all as there are 1000s of miscreants whose removal from society would be a public good, Walt remains opposed to the death penalty. Exodus 20:13. 

1000s attend Trump FL rally, crickets heard at Biden rallies

 Still-President Trump and President-Wannabe Biden are out on the hustings. The polls that the lamestream media chooses to publish are said to show Mr Biden with a comfortable lead -- 10 points or so -- over POTUS. But the pollsters have been wrong before... about four years ago, as I recall.

Think about it. If you were walking down the street and some dude with a clipboard stopped you and asked you how you intended to vote, would you say "I'm gonna vote for Trump," knowing that the response would be, "OK, I'll put you down as a racist redneck, then, because that's what all Trump supporters are."

Same thing with those stupid "man-on-the-street" bits that the major networks do. They take their cameras with the CNN/MSNBC/ABC/BBC/CBC logos and train them on the denizens of places like Teaticket MA and Lick Fork VA [You can look those up. Ed.] while a "reporter" in collar-and-tie asks "Who are you going to vote for, hillbilly person?" What answer would you give, standing there with your thumbs hooked in the straps of your bib overalls?

If you want to know what's going on in your neighbourhood, take a look at the lawn signs. Where I come from, the number of lawn signs per candidate is a pretty accurate indicator of which way the vote is going to go. And if you live in a state in which there's a Senate race, don't just count the Trump and Biden signs. Which party controls the Senate is going to be very important this time around, especially if Sleepy Joe wins the Presidensity and tries to pack SCOTUS.

It's also worth checking out the crowds at campaign events. Clips of President Trump's rally in Florida on Monday showed 1000s of cheering supporters. On the same day, former Vice-President Biden spoke to what was billed as a "drive-in rally for union workers and supporters" in Toledo OH. At left is a photo of part of the "crowd".

But (I hear you say), surely that's just a close-up of a few people. There must have been more than that! Indeed so. A longer shot which somehow wasn't edited out of the news report on the CBC (aka CNN North) showed a parking lot filled with literally dozens of cars! 

And remember, this was a union-organized event. The Dumbocrats are great friends of the unions, eh, and vice versa. By the way, the IBEW was accused repeatedly, back in the 50s, of being, if not outright Communists, at least fellow-travellers.

The week before, Mr Biden appeared in Arizona, with his running mate, the well-known Indo-Jamaican-American Kamala Harris, for what was supposed to be a major campaign event in Phoenix. Here's a screen shot of KSAZ-TV reporter Nicole Garcia describing the scene -- not a single person in sight!

"Not a lot of fanfare out here," said Ms Garcia reported. "There's really not much to see. I'll step out of the way, but it's kinda boring out here. So, it's not your typical presidential campaign event; we don't see people rallying outside, we don't see signs or really much of what's going on."

According to the Washington Standard, the cameraman panned behind Ms Garcia during her report, revealing nothing and nobody save a lone police car. When the reporter contacted the Biden campaign about the lack of fanfare and supporters, Sleepy Joe's team claimed details about the event were not widely publicized because of the coronavirus.

Ms Garcia said "I'm told by one of the local Biden staffers is that they kinda kept the details about the visit, as far as the timing and the exact locations, they didn't really want to give that out to the public, because they want to keep the crowds to a minimum." So everything went according to plan, then.

"Pretty much all the people that we saw enter into the parking lot about 45 minutes ago were with the Biden/Harris campaign and the pool reporters," Ms Garcia explained. "So, you would expect to see... I mean, this is a pretty big event for the two of them to be campaigning together for the first time since the Democratic National Convention. Here in Arizona, our state has established itself as a battleground state, and so this is technically a big event, but not a lot of fanfare."

Sez Walt: the polls may say one thing, sez Walt, but if you keep your eyes open, you can see the truth.

Further reading: The reluctance to talk to pollsters I described above has a name: shy voter phenomenon. To learn more about this, read "Study and Signs Tell Us Polls Might Be Missing Hidden Trump Voters", by John Nolte, Breitbart News, 14/10/20.

Death by cactus: a prickly situation in Arizona

Hot news from Arizona! No, Walt isn't talking about yesterday's Supreme Court decision. Looks to me as if that was pretty much a draw. The immigration mess isn't going to be sorted out by the courts. To do that will take a courageous politician with some real cojones -- not someone who's afraid of alienating the aliens!

No. Walt is referring to a sad story in the Yuma News. A city worker is in intensive care today after being crushed nearly to death by a 16-foot saguaro cactus.

Sounds like something out of a Warner Bros. cartoon, doesn't it? But it's true. William Mason, of Yuma, was responding to an emergency water leak -- whether out of the cactus or elsewhere is not clear -- when he was struck by the spiny plant. His colleagues were able to free him and call emergency services after the freak accident. At least they're calling it an accident! Who knows for sure?

Saguaro cacti, common in the US south-west, can weigh thousands of pounds, depending on how much water they hold. Yuma city officials say Mr Mason remains in hospital after suffering serious injuries, including to his back and legs. Doctors have removed about 150 spines from his body...so far.

Another example of racist over-policing

This is...or was...Mitchel Leton Celise, a.k.a. "SK" or "Skeezy". Accompanied by two friends, he was walking down a street in the west end of Toronto on Monday, [minding his own business no doubt, ed.] when he was shot in the back by an unknown assailant who might be described as "a young black man who spoke with a Jamaican accent". Police are investigating.

Coincidentally, yesterday morning about a thousand Toronto cops, assisted by members of other forces and the Canadian Border Service Agency, raided scores of homes across southern Ontario rounding up the usual suspects, i.e. young black men who spoke with Jamaican accents.

This was part of Project Corral, targetting (successfully) black gangs which are terrorizing Toronto's west end. The Toronto police "guns and gangs" squad led the operation. Guns and gangs...and Jamaicans. At least in Toronto, the three words go together. If you doubt me, if you think I'm being racist for saying this, read Rosie DiManno's account in today's Toronto Star.

Everybody knows that the majority of murders in the so-called Greater Toronto area, especially the west end, are "black on black". Everybody knows many of those involved are from the sunny isle of Jamaica. And everybody knows many of them are in Canada illegally. But nobody talks about this "elephant in the room" because it's not politically correct.

It's not politically correct because everybody knows these poor sweet black boys are "disadvantaged" and it's all our fault because of centuries of white oppression, slavery, colonialism, discrimination, yadda yadda yadda. We honkies just love to wallow in our liberal guilt.

Even as I write, the "progressive" and "modern" Forces for Good in our society, especially in the media, are raising the cry that Operation Corral is yet another example of the "over-policing" of the disadvantaged "at-risk neighbourhoods". What do they think should be done? Just leave them alone to kill each other? [Hmmm... ed.]

Do that, and the streets won't be safe for anyone, as witness the tragic killing of Jane Creba, an innocent bystander who was caught in the crossfire while out doing some Boxing Day shopping on Toronto's main street. Who wants to live in that kind of city? One might as well move to Detroit!

So what is to be done? It has been suggested that Canada...or at least its big cities...could benefit from laws requiring police to stop and challenge peope as to their immigration status. Like the law recently passed in Arizona. But nooooooo. Tolerant Canadians wouldn't do that because, well, that's like Nazi Germany, eh. And it's so American to say, or even think that there's any connection between drugs, guns, crime and illegal aliens!

Walt suggests that perhaps Canadians...and New Yorkers...could learn something from the citizens of Arizona. At least measures to combat illegal immigration could be discussed without using the epithet of racism.